Tag: music notation

Sight Read Minor Giveaway!

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sight read minor

If you’ve been reading Kids and Keys this week, you already know about the Hanon Plus Giveaway and the Sight Read Plus Giveaway. Well, guess what? We have another one! Today’s giveaway contest is for the Sight Read Minor App. It works in much the same way as the Sight Read Plus app, but for minor keys. So, if you want to get in on this giveaway, leave a comment below telling me how you use apps during your lesson time. For example, I’d like to know if you use apps to begin a lesson, end a lesson, or if you use them for at home assignments or as rewards.

The deadline to enter is Sunday, Oct. 5th, 2014 at midnight.

Alrighty, on your mark, get ready, get set…GO!

app contest

Same Note, Different Value: A Valentine’s Day Matching Game

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Valentine Match UpToday’s post is inspired by Meryl Brown’s One Heart Activity found on her Music Therapy Blog, Developing Melodies. 

Meryl pairs Bob Marley’s song, One Love with a matching heart game to teach preschoolers to match patterns. What I think is so cute about the idea is that it plays off the Valentine’s Day theme which is all about match ups!

Her idea inspired me to create a new game that helps piano students make the connection between notes on the staff that have different values but are the same note. I find that some kids have may correctly identify a quarter note middle C in one measure but do not realize when they see a half note C in a different measure that the two notes are the same note. This quick game is a fun way to help them make that connection.

All you need is some foam heart shapes or paper hearts and a sharpie to draw the notes. Cut the hearts in half in puzzle like designs and your game is ready!

In case you missed yesterday’s post and are looking for more valentine theme piano fun click here!

Valentine’s Day Piano Fun

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Valentine's Piano ActivitiesValentine’s Day gives piano teachers loads of ways to infuse fresh excitement into the piano lesson! Today I’m highlighting an idea from Susan Paradis’ blog which helps kids review notes on the grand staff. Her great idea is centered around an intriguing question,

“Are You A Line Or A Space?”

If you are looking for a quick, fun, and effective music theory activity with a Valentine’s Day theme to start or end your piano lesson you should definitely give this one a try!

Click the video below to hear what one of my students said when I asked her the question…It will make you LAUGH!

Tomorrow’s post will feature another exciting idea from a piano blogger! In the meantime, check out these past Valentine’s Day posts from Kids & Keys:

Music Heals Broken Hearts – A Rhythm Notation Activity

Valentine Steps – Practice reading stepping patterns on a staff

Valentine Steps

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valentine

Here is a quick activity to get the lesson started – especially on Valentine’s Day. Students can practice recognizing and playing stepping patterns on random notes. You could also have the student try to find the matching pattern. (There is one matching set). For extra fun see if the student notices that the hearts form a star in the middle! You can download a copy of this activity here.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

A Fun Way To Introduce Music Notation

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Have you heard of the Freddie The Frog series?  In this picture book series,music educator and author Sharon Burch uses the adventures of a frog named Freddie to introduce music notation and rhythm to early elementary kids. The series is perfectly suited for classroom use, but I use it with private piano students and have found it to be quite useful and enjoyable for students. I was pleasantly surprised to meet Sharon Burch during the 2013 Jazz Education Network (JEN) Conference.   If you are looking for a fun way to introduce music notation to k-3 students, this is it! There are also supplemental games and coloring sheets at http://www.freddiethefrog.comAuthor of Freddie The Frog Series (center) with Dana Rice and Allison Upshaw

Author of Freddie The Frog Series (center) with Dana Rice and Allison Upshaw

Ear Candy Game: Quarter Note Lollipops!

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Here is a new game to help teach/reinforce note reading.

Materials Needed:

Small poster board or other heavy paper

Twizzlers Pull Apart Candy

Skittles

Dum Dum Lollipops

Ways To Play:

For group lessons: After making a staff and bass/treble clef using the Twizzlers, have the student(s) place lollipops on notes you specify.

For each note they properly place, they get to eat the lollipop or save it for after the lesson

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For private lessons: You can have the board completely set up with staff, clef, and notes made of lollipops and skittles. Then have each student choose a lollipop or skittle they want at the end of their lesson. They get to eat it ONLY IF they can correctly name the note.

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This game can also be used to help students identify note on lines or spaces.

For more advanced students you can have them play the melody built by the notes for a bonus take home bag of candy.

Music Notation Made Easy

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I recently found this
visual of the grand staff on wikihow.com which is great for quickly showing kids how the Treble Clef
and Bass Clefs are related.
After looking at the picture the phrase “Ace In The
Hole” came to my mind as a way to help kids connect the two staffs.
I often find that students have a hard time learning to look at both clefs at the same time.
They also tend to forget
the name of the note on the top line of the Bass Clef. “The Ace In The Hole” phrase can also
reenforce the concept of middle C being in the middle of the two staffs, which seems to
also be a surprisingly difficult concept for students to grasp.

Source: wikihow.com via Dana on Pinterest

Play-Doh Re-Mi, Anyone?

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Making A Staff

Sometimes it escapes me how much difficulty piano students have learning to read notes on the staff. You see, the more than 30 years that I’ve spent playing the piano have fooled me into thinking that reading notes on a music staff is EASY-PEASY. Not to worry – reality quickly sets in once my students sit at the piano and I put a sheet of music in front of them. The cheerful, excited faces they had during the pre-staff notation days of their lessons are suddenly absent – replaced by blank stares and a series of failed attempts at finding the right note. So, what to do?

Enter… Play Doh!

Step 1: Have the student make a staff. Some surprising revelations can occur at this time. Here’s one from a student: “There are only 5 lines?”

Step 2: Now the student can add space notes or line notes.  Another revelation: “You mean the space notes have to fit BETWEEN the lines?” 

Happy FACE notes

Step 3: The teacher can add a Treble Clef OR Bass Clef. Then give the student the appropriate phrase to remember the note names. Now have them make up a phrase of their own.

Step 4: Take a picture of that beautiful smile your student is flashing!

3-D Bass Clef Staff